COLUMBIA—United States Attorney Bill Nettles announced that Hamer resident Cristopher Rakel German, age 25, was sentenced to a two-and-a-half years in prison for assaulting a mail carrier with intent to rob in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2114(a).  
The sentence was imposed on April 5th by United States District Court Judge R. Bryan Harwell sitting in Florence.  On August 16, 2013, German had stopped a mail carrier after the carrier had attempted to deliver a package addressed to a fictitious name at the home of German’s relative.  After the carrier refused to give the package to German, he shoved her and grabbed it.  The package contained an unknown quantity of marijuana.
 The case was investigated by Inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  Assistant United States Attorney Eric Klumb prosecuted the case.